Miami Ohio University Athletics
Miami Athletics ? Year in Review
1/13/2015 12:00:00 AM | General
It was a banner year for Miami Athletics in several areas, including fundraising, facility upgrades and continuing the tradition of Graduating Champions.
Over the last 12 months Miami has received multiple seven-figure gifts, including gifts from Ben Roethlisberger and the Gunlock family. In the past 24 months Miami has raised approximately $35 million in private donations that will help make a foremost impact on Miami student-athletes.
Some of those impacts include the Indoor Sports Center, a state of the art facility that will allow Miami student-athletes the opportunity to train year-round. The 91,000-square-foot facility will feature a full length football field, netting for baseball, softball and golf, along with four 100-yard sprint lanes, a high jump area and a long jump pit. The ISC is expected to open this February (Photo Gallery).
Attached to the new indoor building will be the Gunlock Family Performance Center, a facility that will feature a weight room, football locker room, offices for coaching staff, players’ lounge, team meeting rooms, hydrotherapy area, student-athlete rehabilitation center, recruiting and equipment room and reception area.
Earlier this season Millett Hall got a face-lift with the addition of red seats and improved lighting. The new weight and conditioning room inside Goggin Ice Center was completed prior to the start of the 2014-15 hockey season. The Legacy Project at Hayden Park is currently underway. Improvements there include locker rooms, offices for the coaching staff and a player’s lounge. Expected completion is this summer.
While fresh buildings get a majority of the attention, the Red & White Club shattered its previous-high in terms of donors and dollars raised – exceeding records from 2013 by more than 200 new members and raising nearly $900,000 in annual scholarship gifts. More than 300 active members increased their giving to help reach that number.
For a second consecutive year, Miami announced that 100 percent of its student-athlete population were active donors to the Red & White Club.
Those same student-athletes found both success on and off the field. Baseball captured a MAC East Championship, tennis advanced to the NCAA Tournament following a regular and post season MAC championship run and synchronized skating won its 10th straight National Championship in the Collegiate ranks.
In the class room Miami continued to soar above the competition. The RedHawks recently earned the MAC Academic Achievement Award, finishing the 2013-14 season with a grade-point average of 3.20, tops in the conference. Just this past semester, Miami posted a 3.24 GPA, the second-highest GPA in the history of Miami Athletics.
